I did warn last week that August can be a slow month for art, and with many of the other art blogs I frequent running at half-capacity as a result, there have been days that seem to do little but reinforce this seasonal disorder of ennui and downright exodus. This was perhaps most tellingly demonstrated late last week when a standard enquiry I emailed to five separate galleries prompted four out-of-office replies; it seems the art world is indulging in this strange practice I understand is referred to as a ‘vacation.’

All I can say today, then, is bless that Russian woman for attacking the Mona Lisa.

Even in this case, however, the initial shock of the news gives way to nothing when subjected to so much as a lingering glance. Following the story over to The Independent reveals that the projectile in question was not a full cup of English Breakfast tea but rather an empty terracotta mug that still failed to cause any damage to Leonardo’s iconic painting - apparently, bullet-proof glass casing is also effective against crockery.

While the Independent cites the Russian woman’s frustration over being denied French national status as the cause for her outburst, many other articles on the incident have played up the possibility that the woman was afflicted with Stendhal Syndrome - a psychosomatic affliction that causes adverse physical symptoms in individuals exposed to an excess of art.

Wikipedia is far from useful where Stendhal Syndrome is concerned, but Frieze has a rather good article by Melinda Guy on the subject in its online archive. What makes the comparison between the Russian woman’s outburst and Stendhal Syndrome confusing is that the condition is traditionally associated with weakened states - dizziness, fainting, even a vampiric sensation of one’s life draining away - rather than demonstrations of violence or strength:

Looking at great art, according to the Italian psychiatrist Graziella Magherini, can be bad for your mental health. Every year a handful of visitors to Florence develop a peculiar pathology, caused by an encounter with the city’s cultural treasures. Magherini has dubbed this condition the Stendhal Syndrome, and discusses its symptoms - breathlessness, panic attacks, fainting to the floor - in her book La Sindrome di Stendhal (1989).

For a somewhat less academic source that could better explain how a hurled tea cup can be misconstrued as Stendhal Syndrome, one might want to refer to Dario Argento’s bizarre Italian horror film La sindrome di Stendhal (1996). Guy references the film in some detail in her article, and her summary is perhaps the most effective out there:

…very loosely hanging a gorgeous gore-fest on an opening gallery scene in which his heroine, Anna (a beautiful cop), hunts a serial rapist. Tracking her quarry through the Uffizi, Anna is brought down by the power that the surrounding masterworks - cut between shots of her chase - have on her. Stendhalized, she sinks to the ground and is promptly hospitalized. The process of Anna’s recovery, impeded by several attacks by the rapist, sees her transformed into a bloodthirsty femme fatale.

Argento’s film stars his daughter, Asia Argento, as the artistically sensitive and consequently ruthless Anna - a choice that could easily launch another psychological treatise in itself. The casting is somewhat more intriguing insofar as Asia Argento dabbles in painting among the many self-reflective identities detailed on her website, which include her slightly more predictable roles of actor, writer, musical composer and director.

For all her confounding breadth, however, Asia Argento remains far less enigmatic than La Giaconda’s smile. I suppose that’s to be expected with the passage of 500 years from one Italian woman to another with only a vague psychosomatic episode to link the two together.

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